Sweetie is our girl from the Ringo x Tiflah litter born on the 4th of January, 2015. She is the smallest in the litter of five, reminding me much of her mother. She is fearless, throwing herself without caution on the elders each morning, despite their "threats" (of no avail). She already has wonderful visual acuity, chasing (and catching!) her first bunny on the property at ten weeks of age.
Sweetie is pictured above at ten and a half weeks of age. She can look so serious one minute and then be the silliest thing. She has certainly made her way into our hearts and home!
Here is our Sweetie at four months of age while visiting in Alpaugh for the SPDBS critiques which were done by George Bell, John Burchard and Herb Wells. An honor to have these long-time hound men with so much open field experience go over the pups! In April, Carmen Day (Chezday Salukis) also critiqued Sweetie, Tiffany and Caz. So, a top-flight panel took care of judging the babies and we are very thankful to all of them!
(Photos by George Bell)
Here is our Sweetie, now 21 months of age. She and her brother Caz have grown up much to our liking and we are very pleased with them. They are maturing very nicely in regards to their coursing abilities and we are looking forward to enjoying this 2016/2017 coursing season running them, be it at hunts or out in the deserts running free. Sweetie is a solid little girl at 24 1/2 inches at the shoulder and 48 pounds. She doesn't have any trouble keeping her big brother in line! Ringo and Tiflah could not have pleased us any more with their offspring, we are so truly Blessed!
Tragedy came to us and Sweetie in the winter and spring of 2016/2017. In mid-December her lungs filled with fluid and we found she had developed chylothorax. We treated her for the next three months and in March took her to have the last of the fluid drained. She was clearing up from the chylothorax and we suspected it was caused the the trauma of a fall in the field. However, when bloodwork was run in December, it did show a high PCV (packed cell volume) of 75.5%. With dealing with the emergency of her lungs being filled with chylous fluid, we didn't focus on the high PCV, even figured that a Saluki in top coursing condition, living at high altitude could possibly have a PCV this high. When the procedure was done to remove the last of the fluid on March 15th, all went well except Sweetie was highly stressed (she always had stressed at the vet) and we had a hard time settling her down that night (procedure was done at 8 pm), but she did and even ate a small dinner. In the morning I found her with cold feet and gums and rushed her back to vet. Further tests were run and her PCV was up over 90%. We lost her very soon afterwards. With study, the best conclusion we have been able to come to is that she did have primary polycythemia (extremly rare), then did have a transient (stess induced) polycythemic reaction which led to the spike of the PCV to over 90% (which does not sustain life). After 3 months with dealing with chyle in her chest there was most likely scarring of the chest cavity and heart and along with the sedation the night of the 15th, her body could not cope with the overly thick blood and she died in our arms on the vet's table of venous collapse the following morning.
Our hearts are beyond broken as none of us could have ever expected this to happen. What we have learned is that we always want to have a baseline CBC run on our dogs, even the young and healthy dogs, so we know if there might be an underlying condtion that could effect treatment in an emergency situation or in their day to day lives. Pictured above is Sweetie with Jim, relaxing well on the road to recovery just days before the fateful night and her brother, Caz, with the tree we planted in her memory using some of her ashes in the soil. RIP dear Sweetie, until we meet again, be it here during our earthly lives, or when we cross over to the next. We love you beyond words...
|
